cranky dominant pig

Question
Hi, i have 2 males living in seperate cages that share a wall. one, who i adopted from a spca shelter is the sweetest clamest piggy ive met. he is the typical docile little guy who will fall asleep in your lap given the chance. the other ive had since he was young. he was given to me by a friend who purchased him from a private store and he is now about a year and a half. i love him dearly for all his little quirks, but his behavior is all over the place. he doesnt settle in my lap, constantly scent marks all over the place, and bites the bars of his cage ONLY on the wall he and the other pig share. he used to be quite a biter, and will still if you simply offer him your hand to sniff. this is not simply a small test bite to see if it is food, its a hard prolonged bite accompanied by tugging if he has a bit of skin. as far as the cage biting goes he seems to only do it to attract the attention of the other pig, and then he will rumble strut and mark in front of him. i have tried shaking a can with beans in it, walking over and giving him attention (even at 4 am), and whistling or talking at him, nothing seems to work. the two cannot be allowed to play with one another because my trouble pig will mount and bite until the other pig cannot ignore him any more and will push back essentially. he even attempts to dominate me, by climbing up on my chest and shoving my chin upwards with his head. he is allowed out of the cage (a 2x3 cc)at least a half hr to an hr a day, but because of his marking i cant allow him free run of the room. is there anything i can do about his behavior? at this point im willing to try anything. thanks for the help- aleea

Answer
Hello Aleea,

Unfortunantly, it sounds like this may just be a part of his personality and there may be little you can do to change it. Putting a solid wall (an extra piece of coroplast zip-stripped to the cubes would work fine) may help with bar biting and save your nerves and his teeth. Setting up seperate play areas for the two might help with the marking of your home (assuming this started when the other pig arrived) because he won't smell the other male in "his" space and insist on marking it. He is a very dominant pig which is pretty unusally in these normally laid back creatures and it can make him difficult to deal with. It may help to create a "time out" area. When he's misbehaving take him to a small dull lonely area for about 5 minutes or less. Leave him there and go out of the room. It needs to be in a piggy safe area that he can not get out of. There should be no food or toys or anything very interesting and it should be prety small. An empty cardboard box with a lid would work ok or if you have a carboard small animal carrier (ask your pet store for one of their carry home boxes) that's perfect. Expect him to be annoyed and yelling the whole time he's in it, he is actually being punished after all. Just make sure he is not in there more than 5 minutes, it is a pretty serious stresser and you don't want to hurt him in any way. This is a last resort and may not be effective depending on how determined and stubborn he is, but it's worth a shot since you've tried everything else. What this will hopefully do, is shift the balance of power and teach him you are in control and he will have to deal with negative consequences for his bad behavior. Be sure to scold him for his actions and give him a chance to behave before putting him in the box. It may take some time but eventually he'll realize after you say no and he doesn't stop, he's going into the box. He may be too dominant for anything to work though, but it is worth a try. Also, try spending more fun time with him and giving him special treats when he's being good and reacts positively in situations where he typically responds negatively. Trick training may help alot. It will give him special time with you and give him a different outlet for all his mischievousness. It will also give you reasons to reward him instead of just him getting in trouble all the time. Hopefully some of this will help.Good luck!

http://www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs/tricks.html

-kkat